Afghanistan/Pakistan. The Opium Balloon: Taliban Crackdown Moves Opium Market to Pakistan

Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have sought to completely eradicate the opium market by banning poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. The ban, enacted in April 2022, has successfully decreased opium production by an estimated 95% by 2023. While there were roughly 233,000 hectares of planted poppies to produce opium in 2022, cultivation dropped to as low as 10,800 hectares in 2023. Despite opium cultivation marginally rising to 12,800 hectares in 2024, with some provinces like Badakhshan resisting the ban, production remains at an all-time low.

In theory, the near-total eradication of opium in Afghanistan, the country where 80% of the world’s opium supply, should mean that, finally, the drug and its derivatives will disappear. However, the reality is obviously very different.

Instead, what seems to have happened is that Afghan poppy, opium and heroin cultivators and manufacturers are migrating to Pakistan, transferring the industry’s workforce and technical knowledge to build up a new supply for this profitable and highly demanded set of substances. (Talking Drugs, UK, 24.07.2025)

https://www.talkingdrugs.org/the-opium-balloon-taliban-crackdown-moves-opium-market-to-pakistan/